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42% of online adults in the USA use two or more social networks

Facebook is still the dominant social site in the USA, but even more adults are now signing up to multiple platforms.

These findings come from Pew Internet’s latest research, based on a sample of 1,800 adults.

Currently 73% of online adults now use social networking sites, and with our friendship groups, colleagues and professional connections scattered across even more social networks than ever before, it has become a necessity to sign up to multiple platforms in order to engage with them all.

I’ve even had to adopt a second Twitter account to separate my own ‘church and state’ (or less-professional nonsense from even less-professional nonsense.)

Here are some more social network stats from the research, covering Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the relative audience crossover between each platform.

36% of online adults use only one social network.

Among those that use only one social network, 84% are Facebook users.

Which platform is the non-Facebook using, single social site visitor using?

LinkedIn 8%

Pinterest 4%

Twitter 2%

Instagram 2%

LinkedIn, Facebook’s nearest US rival carries the largest share of non-Facebook users. Understandable as this social network is targeted at professionals, who may not necessarily go on in for the networks that skew towards younger demographics.

A significant majority of Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn users also use Facebook. For instance, 83% of LinkedIn users visit Facebook as well as 93% of Instagram users.

Outside of Facebook, the sites with the highest reciprocity are Twitter and Instagram, having the biggest overlap in demographic, with urban dwelling, younger adults forming the core user groups for each. 53% of Instagram users also use Twitter.

Here’s a breakdown of the percentages of online adults and the social networks they visit.

Pinterest has seen the steepest year-on-year rise, but of course Facebook is the dominant figure on the horizon, 50% above its nearest rival.

Here are some more interesting stats from the research:

Facebook

71% of online adults are Facebook users. This is slightly up from last year’s figure of 67%.

Facebook has increased in popularity with the older generation, with 45% of online adults aged 65 or older using the site. This has risen from 35% in 2012.

63% of Facebook users visit the site at least once a day.

40% of Facebook users visit multiple times a day.

Instagram and Twitter

Instagram users are just as likely to check in to that site as Facebook users are with Facebook. Which is obviously a double-win for Facebook.

Instagram and Twitter have a much smaller number of users, but the users tend to visit these sites more frequently.

57% of Instagram users visit the site once a day.

35% of Instagram users visit the site multiple times a day.

46% of Twitter users visit the site once a day.

29% of Twitter users visit the site multiple times a day.

Pinterest

Women are four times more likely to be on Pinterest than men.

Just 23% of Pinterest users visit the site on a daily basis.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is mainly popular amongst graduates and online adults from higher income households.

It’s the only social network where usage among the 50-64 age bracket is higher than 18-29.

Recommended

Even though it’s early January, this is not a 2014 predictions post. However, one trend that will continue to grow this year is that of consumer expectation associated with the sharing of their personal information.

The general public are becoming much more savvy around this data value exchange, and their expectations for what they get in return are increasing.

Relevance is key, and that means serving your customers and prospective customers with meaningful content that services a current need for them, and content which is served via a medium (or channel) that suits their behaviours.

Knowing all the about ‘who’ on its own is no longer enough, it needs to be complimented by the ‘when’ and the combination of both is where real-time relevance can be provided.

There is a simple hierarchy model that can be applied to help ensure relevance can be delivered, and it would be good to hear your opinions on this in the comments section.

90% of data in the world today was created in the past two years. Using social media, brands have an unparalleled opportunity to hear what their customers and potential customers think and feel about them.

Brands have always monitored what is written about them, but social listening is something different.

Listening is active. It usually requires you to do something as a result of what you’ve heard: spotting issues early, righting wrongs, surprising and delighting customers, marketing in real time, and gathering insight and intelligence to help you develop better products.

It’s easy just to focus on the influencers, and ignore the small voice in the crowd. But this can be a mistake. US insurance company Harvard Pilgrim didn’t respond to a customer complaint, first offline, then online, when the customer published a blog post about the problem.

Although the readership of the blog was barely in double digits, when the post was tweeted it went viral and 1,000 people read the post.

Companies are pouring billions of dollars a year into social media and influencer marketing campaigns, many of which target consumers on Facebook-owned Instagram, in an effort to parlay social engagement into sales.